The Taliban failed to mount their long-threatened spring offensive in Afghanistan, and indications are the guerrillas may have trouble recruiting fighters after the harvest, a NATO commander said.
The only spring offensive that has taken place this year is the one that NATO has conducted, British Brigadier John Lorimer, the one-star general who commands NATOs forces in Afghanistans Helmand province, told Reuters. The hot months are usually the peak fighting season in Afghanistan. The Taliban threatened - and NATOs own generals predicted - a likely upsurge in guerrilla attacks early this year as the snow melted.
But Lorimer, speaking in an interview overnight at his headquarters in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, said NATO operations over the winter appeared to have disrupted guerrilla supply chains, making it more difficult for them to mount the sort of large-scale attacks that were common last year. Lorimer commanded a series of combined US-British NATO operations over the past two months, which the alliance says drove Taliban forces out of one of their main strongholds, the Sangin Valley carved by the Helmand River. The NATO force, which took control of southern Afghanistan last year and aims to impose the rule of President Hamid Karzais government in Taliban areas, has portrayed the Sangin offensives as a major victory.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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The Taliban threatened — and NATOs own generals predicted —
And the MSM hoped.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/15/2007 0:35 Comments ||
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Hey! Not so fast! Spring is not until next week! We still got time!
Posted by: The Ghost of Mullah Dadullah ||
06/15/2007 6:05 Comments ||
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As I read my newspaper and watch TV news, it is clear that the guerillas are sweeping over Afghanistan, seizing control of villages, roads, schools, and government building. These reports reveal massive killing of innocent Afghanis and widespread anger caused by NATO repression of the Afghanis.
Please check your facts. Almost any large newspaper or TV network will do.
(SomaliNet) The dead bodies of the two Kenyan soldiers who had recently been abducted from the Kenya-Somalia border were found in the Somalias Dhuhul Dhurwa border village on Thursday, local official says.
On Sunday the two Kenyan soldiers disappeared as they were at Mandhera town which bordering Somalia. They were believed to have been kidnapped by Islamist armed militants who crossed into Kenya. Local sources said they were abducted by heavily armed militiamen, presumably from the ousted Islamic Courts Union which ruled much of southern and central Somalia for six months in 2006.
The chairman of Somalias Baled Hawa town near the Kenyan border Ahmed Mohammed Barkus confirmed the news of the dead soldiers saying they seemed to be killed by gun shots. The two policemen were found murdered outside of the village and there were gun shorts on their bodies, said Mohamed adding that the Kenyan government which deployed a large number of its troops inside Somalia continues investigations over the case.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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The answer is to never under any circumstances be taken captive by a muslim. Fight to the deal. Take one with you. Blind him if you can't.
An on-the-run British terrorism suspect, linked to one of the London 2005 suicide bombers, was named on Thursday after a court lifted an order that banned revealing his identity. Zeeshan Siddiqui, who officials also say has links to Al Qaeda, escaped from a psychiatric unit last year while under a government control order designed to keep suspects who have not been convicted of a crime under close supervision. The media had been barred from reporting his name as those held under control orders are entitled to anonymity. British officials say Siddiqui, 25, previously only known as AD, had attended Al Qaeda training camps, was said to be an expert in explosives and had links to a number of British terrorism groups.
This article starring:
ZISHAN SIDIQUI
al-Qaeda in Britain
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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About bloody time.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/15/2007 3:38 Comments ||
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The BBC apologized this week for referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and promised not to repeat "the mistake," following a complaint by four British organizations.
Arab Media Watch, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, Friends of Al-Aksa and the Institute of Islamic Political Thought sent a joint complaint to the BBC after a presenter on its Football Focus program on March 24 mentioned that Jerusalem was Israel's capital and "historic soul."
The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit posted a response on its Web site: "The reference was a passing one in a context where the focus was on sport, not politics. While recognizing the sensitivity of the issue of the status of Jerusalem, the ECU took the view that the program-makers had taken sufficient action by acknowledging the error and rectifying the Web site." I think I will begin referring to Paris as Britain's capital, since that's where most of Britain's laws now originate.
More.
Posted by: ed ||
06/15/2007 11:00 ||
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You just knew it'd be Bush's fault, right?Five years ago this month, President Bush stood in the Rose Garden and laid out a vision for the Middle East that included Israel and a state called Palestine living together in peace. "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.
The takeover this week of the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group dedicated to the elimination of Israel demonstrates how much that vision has failed to materialize, in part because of actions taken by the administration. The United States championed Israel's departure from the Gaza Strip as a first step toward peace and then pressed both Israelis and Palestinians to schedule legislative elections, which Hamas unexpectedly won. Now Hamas is the unchallenged power in Gaza. Rest at the WaPo link.
Posted by: The Ghost of Mullah Dadullah ||
06/15/2007 06:15 ||
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Gaza is the UN's and EU's stepchild, not Bush's. Had been long before Bushie even made an appearance. Another example of 'projection' by the bankrupt left and their twin cults of victimhood and blame America.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed Thursday that he told liberal bloggers last week that he thinks outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace is "incompetent."
Reid also disparaged Army Gen. David Petraeus, head of Multinational Forces in Iraq.
But Reid, whose comments to bloggers first appeared in The Politico, also told reporters: "I think we should just drop it."
This is significant only because some of the mind-numbed robots members of the Left blogosphere were claiming that Politico fabricated the Reid quote. There's a roundup at Captain's Quartters. Check the comments for some Lefty trolls' cackling about the gullability of us "wingnuts." Yeah, when Harry Reid says he says something, we're dumb enough to believe him!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/15/2007 07:05 ||
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"I think we should just drop it."
Yeah, of course. And the press will dutifully drop it.
#2
Every time he makes headlines, I think, "He can go any lower", but he does. This, however, is not low, it's just moronically, mind-numbingly stupid.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/15/2007 9:04 Comments ||
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A politician with a 19% approval rating passes opinion on competency. This HAS to be comedy. It's like he's playing straight man for another Dennis Miller rant.
The more Reid acts like a fool, the more he's fun to watch. And to think: HE is the standard bearer of the Democrat party.
#5
Dems definition of incompetence and the reason they were to filibuster Gen. Pace's reappointment: "My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace told the Tribune. "I believe that military members who sleep with other military members' wives are immoral in their conduct."
Pace also told the paper, "I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.
"So the 'don't ask, don't tell' [policy] allows an individual to serve the country ... if we know about immoral acts, regardless of committed by who, then we have a responsibility.
"I do not believe that the armed forces are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexual acts," the Joint Chiefs chairman said.
"So from that standpoint, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that we, by policy, would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity," he added.
No wonder leftists and muslims are allied. Both their worlds revolve around their pricks.
Posted by: ed ||
06/15/2007 10:49 Comments ||
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Dissecting the controversy . . . over Harry Reid calling Generals Pace and Petraeus "incompetent," a few unresolved questions jump out. First off, the "progressive" bloggers with whom Reid was speaking seem to have no idea exactly what was said on the call. A few of them say they don't remember the senator making any such statement, and one of them "flatly denies" it ever happened. . . .
So, now it turns out that Reid did, in fact, call Pace "incompetent," despite the denials of all the bloggers linked above, and Reid's own non-denial denial. Not only that, Reid claimed that he called Pace a "yes-man" and "incompetent" to his face. He claimed he questioned the man's competence AND his integrity. He might as well have slapped him across the face with a white glove! How could none of these bloggers have thought such a claim newsworthy? So which is worse: the unbelievably small chance that Reid did actually say those things to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or that he lied about doing so in a pander to lefty bloggers. The truth is that he was probably embellishing for his audience, . . .
As to why the bloggers didn't think the initial comment to be newsworthy...either they knew this to be such a ridiculous claim that they decided not to print it, or this type of rhetoric is so common on that side of the aisle that it just didn't stand out as exceptional. Again, I'm not sure which is worse. . . .
The lefty bloggers, for their part, have shown themselves to be totally inept. They failed to report the comments, then they denied Reid ever made them while making their own unsubstantiated allegations, and now they defend the comments as irrelevant--and without even the slightest doubt as to their validity. Which is worse?
Posted by: Mike ||
06/15/2007 12:14 Comments ||
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Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban supremo Mulla Mohammad Omar are not in southwestern Pakistan, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf told top US diplomat Richard Boucher on Thursday.
Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday and travelled to Quetta for talks with local officials. Afghan officials and some NATO commanders have alleged that Taliban leaders are based in the provincial capital and are using outposts in Pakistan to launch cross-border attacks on Afghan and international troops.
There is no Taliban headquarters in Balochistan, nor are the Taliban chiefs Mullah Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden in Balochistan, Chief Minister Yusuf told Boucher, according to an official statement.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied the presence of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar in its territory despite all evidence to the contrary. The statement said Boucher praised Pakistans role in the war on terror and agreed that there was no solid evidence to prove Mullah Omars presence in Balochistan. The US official later visited the border town of Chaman where he was briefed about efforts to check illegal crossings at the 2,500 km long border with Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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ahhhh.. it's almost summer and the Kyber Flyer comes out!
/and mr. ship will be wearing his whites soon.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
06/15/2007 2:52 Comments ||
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Already after June 1 Dawg. Perfectly acceptable in the tropics. I'll query TW about it.
Militants loyal to anti-Uzbek commander Mullah Nazir have warned Wazir elders against sheltering Uzbeks in South Waziristan. A tribal jirga of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes will meet today (Friday) in Wana to discuss the issue. The Taliban are angry at the presence of Uzbeks being hosted by some elders and they demand action against such people, a tribal elder told Daily Times after attending a jirga in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan, on Thursday.
According to the elder, the Taliban told the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes they had reports that Uzbek militants were still being sheltered in Wazir areas and if locals harbour rather than expel them they would take action.
Mullah Nazir led a drive against Uzbek militants in March this year. More than 200 militants from Uzbekistan were killed while others fled, some taking shelter in Mehsud areas of South Waziristan and the rest in North Waziristan. The Uzbeks have been accused of target-killings, kidnapping, vehicle snatching, and running private jails. At Wednesdays jirga, the Taliban threatened to name the elders sheltering Uzbeks. However, some elders advised the Taliban against naming them, the elder said.
He said if the Taliban had named the people suspected of sheltering Uzbeks, it would have led to serious consequences. Suspects could have retaliated, and there would have been bloodshed, he said. We advised the Taliban against taking names before the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes take a unanimous decision on the issue, the tribal elder said. Tribal sources said that Mullah Nazir suspects family members and relatives of Wazir commanders. Commanders Haji Umar, Noor Islam, Javed Karmazkhel, Maulvi Abbas and Ghulam Jan sided with the Uzbeks. The families must be in touch with these people and this angers the Taliban, said sources who requested anonymity. Mullah Jinnah Mir, pro-Mullah Nazir commander, told the jirga on Thursday that Ahmedzai Wazir tribes were under obligation to protect their areas against the evils, a reference to Uzbek militants and their local supporters.
Sources said Mullah Nazir was reinforcing his position and that his complete control over the areas had led to increased economic activities. I am selling thousands of litres of fuel every day, which was not the case since 2004 when militants and security forces began fighting each other, said a petrol pump owner.
The Uzbeks or the commanders supporting them, the sources opined, would find it extremely difficult to stage a comeback against Mullah Nazir, who denies that the army had supported him in his drive against the Uzbeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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US Deputy Secretary of State John D Negroponte arrives here today (Friday) to discuss the rising threat of the Taliban movement in the border areas of Pakistan and its impact on the security situation in Afghanistan. Sources, however, denied that senior US officials Richard Boucher and Negroponte were in Pakistan to help defuse the political and judicial crisis, saying that Negropontes visit had nothing to do with domestic issues, though certain developments could be discussed in passing. The US is more concerned about Taliban encroachment on settled areas like Tank, Bannu and DI Khan. They are concerned that more than five years after the fall of the Taliban, Western forces are still faced with the uphill task of quelling the Taliban-led insurgency, said the sources. They also said that US was concerned about the North Waziristan agreement.
Negroponte along with Boucher is scheduled to meet President Musharraf tomorrow (Saturday) and the do more demand would be part of the consultations, said the sources. Pakistans Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri will also leave for the US on June 17. Though officially it is said that Kasuri would meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, some western diplomats said that he would also give lengthy briefings to CIA officials on the Taliban and security related issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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If I was ranked 3-5 in Al Qadia or the Taliban I would be real scared now...
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
06/15/2007 6:14 Comments ||
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US President George W. Bush's alliance with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf came under fire Thursday at a hearing in the House of Representatives on human rights as a Republican lawmaker said: "The United States should not be supporting a military dictatorship" in the South Asian country.
Shortcomings in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Uzbekistan were the designated subjects of the House subcommittee hearing, and a panel of witnesses did not spare the three countries severe criticism. But an official of Human Rights Watch added Pakistan to the mix, with a scorching description of the Musharraf government as "the most egregious, and harmful, example of a human rights double standard in American foreign policy today." Tom Malinowski, of the private group's Washington office and a former State Department official, excoriated Bush for supporting Musharraf "against anyone who criticizes his continued dictatorial rule over Pakistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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"It would be far better if he was an Islamist who bitterly hated the US and fully aligned his nation with China. In fact that would be better for many nations in the world. America is evil."
BAGHDAD - The US military said on Thursday that Iraqi security forces have arrested 13 policemen over the bombing of a Shia shrine in the town of Samarra, which Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki blamed on guards at the site. Immediately following the attack, Brigadier General Duraid Ali Ahmed Mohammad Azzawi, deputy commander for the National Police in Samarra, arrested the emergency service unit commander and 12 policemen responsible for security at the time of the attack, the military said in a statement.
Wednesdays bombing at the Al Askari mosque followed an attack by Al Qaeda militants in February 2006 that destroyed its golden dome and touched off a wave of sectarian killings that has left tens of thousands of people dead. The guards present there had a role in this attack and they will be punished, Maliki told reporters during a visit to Samarra on Wednesday that was broadcast by Al Iraqiya television on Thursday.
Anyone who is involved or participated or played any role in this brutal crime will be punished, he said. In two days we were to sign a contract to reconstruct the shrine, but this cowardly action was carried out though it will not deter us from rebuilding, Maliki said.
Iraqi security forces, including the specialised Facility Protection Service (FPS) guards, have been deployed around the shrine since it was first attacked. On Wednesday, suspected Al Qaeda militants bombed the two minarets of the shrine in the town that lies northwest of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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A senior Hamas official in Syria said Thursday there would be no change in Gaza's status and no Islamic rule declared in the territory after a near takeover of the seaside strip by the militant group. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, also ruled out Hamas separating Gaza from the West Bank. He said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' decision to fire his Hamas prime minister would complicate matters and that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would likely continue on the job.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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He said no change after near takeover. After that, when full takeover takes place, what's Allan's will would happen, he meant.
The head of the Arab league on Thursday warned of a "disastrous outcome" if the bloody infighting between Hamas and Fatah continues, and urged an immediate cease-fire.
"I call for a cease fire immediately," Amr Moussa said in Cairo.
"I call for a cease fire immediately," Amr Moussa said in Cairo after an urgent meeting with Jibril al-Rajoub, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's senior security adviser. Moussa urged the Palestinian factions embroiled in what looks increasingly like a civil war in the Gaza Strip to "cooperate more" with an Egyptian team of mediators.
"Now, play nice, y'all!"
At least 15 Palestinians were killed on Thursday as Hamas overran one of Fatah's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Moussa also said that the Arab states were "extremely displeased" at the Palestinian clashes, which he described as "unacceptable."
Not displeased enough to cut off the flow of money and arms and let the Paleos go to hell, of course.
The Arab League was preparing for holding an urgent Arab foreign ministers' meeting on Friday to discuss the deteriorating security situation in the Palestinian territories, Moussa said. Al-Rajoub said what was needed now was a "constructive, unified Arab stance to rescue the Palestinians from this destruction."
Maybe they need a unity government, huh? That always works well.
He warned that if the fighting weren't halted, it would make all the Palestinians "losers."
As opposed to what they are now...
Earlier Thursday, the European Commission suspended its humanitarian aid projects in the Gaza Strip, citing the escalating sectarian violence. "I fervently hope that the projects can resume very soon," said EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel.
"There's nothing we love more than dumping money, aid, and good intentions on these imcompetent screwups."
EU humanitarian operations in both Gaza and the West Bank totaled 84 million euros ($110 million) last year. So far this year, it has earmarked 60 million euros ($80 million). Some 80 people, most of them armed, have been killed since a spike in violence Sunday sent Gaza into civil war.
If they'd only been given more euros that number could have been twice as high.
"This is a time when people desperately need protection and support. The warring parties must respect the principles of international humanitarian law," said Michel.
They do, to about the same extent they respect anything else.
Despite the escalating violence, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner called on the Palestinians to stick with a national unity government.
... because it's been working so spectacularly well....
"Now is not the time to give up on national unity, both in the government and in the security sector," she said. "I call on both Hamas and Fatah to invest all their energy in this coalition. "
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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I would give humanitarian aid: a gun for every self-loathing Gazan. That would put US out of OUR misery.
Deposed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said early Friday that Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision to fire him and his government over Gaza violence was "hasty." Haniyeh told a late night Gaza news conference that Abbas and his advisers did not consider "the consequences (of the decision) and its effects on the situation on the ground."
Your organization is in rebellion, taking over territory and shooting people down in the streets. So the decision to fire you is "hasty"?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Palestinian security officials said an Israeli tank shell killed five children traveling in a car near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Thursday, but the IDF denied any army fire in the area. Hospital workers said the children were all siblings, under 16, from the Abu Matrok family. The driver of the car was also killed the security officials said.
"Wudn't us."
Earlier Thursday, the IDF took control of a few hills and open areas near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza in an attempt to prevent Kassam rocket attacks on Israel. According to Israel Radio, a small force of tanks and other armored vehicles has been operating for the last few days a few hundred meters into Gaza on the Palestinian side of the security fence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Iran started its first phase of petrol rationing yesterday, limiting the fuel that drivers of government cars can buy, but many Iranians are still confused about how and when the full rationing plan would be in place. Filling station workers said they were now limiting government-owned cars to 300 litres a month. But one said he was not sure what would happen if drivers of such cars wanted to buy fuel above that amount.
Despite big energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity to meet domestic fuel demand, which analysts say is rising at about 10 per cent a year. Heavy subsidies which drain state coffers make fuel so cheap it encourages waste, analysts say. The No 2 OPEC oil producer has to import about 40 per cent of daily consumption estimated at about 75 million litres, a sensitive issue as world powers have threatened to step up UN sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear programme.
"We had many government-owned cars coming here this morning for fuel and the rationing has started," said Ali Kalhor, a manager at a fuel station in central Tehran. "We still do not know the price of extra fuel if anybody wants it." Some MPs have said fuel above the rationed quota would be offered at market rates but no official announcement has been made. Officials have sent conflicting signals about when full rationing would be in place, some say it might be next week.
Critics question whether rationing government cars will help reduce the state's fuel subsidy bill or cut consumption. One former official said those who drive state cars claim fuel on expenses so - subsidised or not - the government still pays. Qodratollah Imani, an MP, was quoted by Poul newspaper as saying parliament might debate scrapping the idea. So far, the government has raised the subsidised fuel price by 25 per cent to 1,000 rials (5œp) a litre. Drivers must produce electronic "smart" cards to buy any fuel. But the government has not said how much fuel would be given to ordinary drivers once rationing is enforced. One official suggested a figure of 90 litres per day, an amount dismissed by drivers as too little.
I drive a full-sized car with a big thirsty V8. It would take Me almost 2 weeks to go through 90 liters. These are "ordinary drivers," not long-haul truckers.
Does everyone over there drive a Rolls or Maybach? Or a F-850?
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/15/2007 0:41 Comments ||
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Filling station workers said they were now limiting government-owned cars to 300 litres a month.
As government animals are in average thrice more equal then others, the figure 90 l must be per month.
#8
Oh, and thinking back even further, I had a 1960 Jaguar Mk IX Automatic (!). It had 2 gas tanks, and it got really low milage. Hard for me to really remember, but less than 10 mpg, certainly. I owned it back during the price spike in the 80s, of course...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
06/15/2007 8:38 Comments ||
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Does everyone over there drive a Rolls or Maybach? Or a F-850?
A powerful car bomb killed anti-Syrian Lebanese lawmaker Walid Eido and nine other people on Wednesday in an attack his colleagues blamed on Damascus. A parked Mitsubishi Pajero four wheel vehicle packed with 80 kg (177 lbs) of explosives blew up as Eido's car was driving away from a Beirut beach club, a senior security source said. One of the parliamentarian's sons and two bodyguards were among the dead. At least 15 people were wounded including the youngest son of Eido .
Eido, 65, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government. A Sunni Muslim lawyer, he had been a foe of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated by a suicide truck bomber in February 2005. Eido was killed just three days after a U.N. Security Council resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's assassination.
Saad al-Hariri says Syria was behind his father's killing and later attacks. Damascus denies any involvement. Eido's death brought to seven the number of anti-Syrian politicians and journalists killed in Lebanon since 2005. "It is the same fingers that assassinated the martyred premier Rafik al-Hariri ... the fingers of evil and its evil agents that plant terror in Lebanon," Hariri said of Eido's killing. "They don't want Lebanon to rest."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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As the assassins attempt to reduce Lebanon's majority by killing off members of the anti-Syrian coalition, the Lebanese government must prevent any new bloodshed by immediately replacing the slain politicians.
Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa asked the government Thursday to issue a decree calling for the election of successors to assassinated Parliamentary Deputies Pirerre Gemayel and Walid Eido. The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) said Sabaa sent his request in a memo to the cabinet secretary general Suheil Bawji. A cabinet source said Bawji would list the request on the agenda of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government holding its regular weekly session.
The March 14 majority alliance called Wednesday, a few hours after Eido's assassination by a car bomb in Beirut, for elections to fill in his seat and that of Gemayel, who was shot dead last Nov. 21. Both crimes have been blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. Damascus has denied the charges.
Gemayel, a Maronite, represented the Phalange Party in the 128-seat house. Eido, a Sunni, represented al-Moustaqbal Movement in Parliament. Election of the two legislators, if approved, would be held in the Metn and Beirut constituencies.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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During the live coverage of Walid Eido's assassination, Nabih Berri's news channel anchors forgot to mute their microphones as they proceeded to laugh at the murder of Eido, and imply there was more coming. NBN's technical director forgot to kill the anchorwoman's microphone, allowing viewers to hear her say "it took them long enough", in reference to Eido's murder. In between rounds of laughing and gloating with her colleagues, they speculated that March 14 minister Ahmad Fatafat could be next, and tried to determine how many more March 14 members need to die to get rid of the parliament's majority.
Beyond the divisive and damaging insults being cast in the aftermath of one of the most violent and tragic political assassinations in Lebanon's history which claimed the lives of 10 citizens, the sick comments open a can of worms for Lebanon's delinquent speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri and his closest ally, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. The NBN employees imply that there is in fact a plan to eliminate the anti-Syrian majority by killing off their members of parliament.
According to Al Arabiya TV, Ahmad Fatfat is already planning to sue NBN for implying that he is the next assassination target, and plans to ask U.N. Chief Investigator Serge Brammertz to raise the incriminating remarks with international courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Fatfat ought not sue but thank them for the warning.
About 150 hard-line Iranian students threw stones and paint at the British Embassy and clashed with anti-riot police Thursday, protesting what they called Britain's interference in internal affairs. The students chanted "Death to England" and "close down the British Embassy" during the protest.
Anti-riot police used batons during the clashes to block the students from entering the embassy, which is located in downtown Teheran. Some of the students accused Britain of seeking to provoke ethnic tensions in Iran and undermining Iran's security. They also called on the government to expel the British ambassador to Teheran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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Dismissing claims that Hizbullah has returned to its former strength in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL commander Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the guerrilla group was practically non-existent south of the Litani River and that if the peacekeeping mission continued, the threat of war would be completely removed within three years.
Visiting Tel Aviv for meetings with IDF officers, Graziano, an Italian general appointed commander of UNIFIL in February, told The Post that his men believed in their mission of preventing hostilities in southern Lebanon and were willing to sacrifice their lives on Israel's behalf.
"Our job is to defend peace and it is a value-based job for soldiers," he explained. "There are people who will offer their lives for higher values like peace, security and stability."
Graziano's claim that Hizbullah had not rearmed itself or rebuilt its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon came a week after Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz told The Post that the guerrilla group was back at its former strength particularly inside southern Lebanese urban areas as well as forest preserves.
He also rejected news reports that Hizbullah had built up a new bunker system nearby UNIFIL positions. Graziano said that UNIFIL - made up of over 13,000 soldiers - conducts over 400 patrols daily and mans close to 200 observation posts throughout the area of operations which is 1,100 square kilometers from the Litani River in the north to the Blue Line border in the south.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/15/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Hizbullah not rearming in s. Lebanon
Course not. They are done with it in S. L. Also, they are rearming everywhere else.
#6
"Our job is to defend peace and it is a value-based job for soldiers," he explained. "There are people who will offer their lives for higher values like peace, security and stability."
Wanker or bugger? Self-righteous prig, regardless.
#7
He also rejected news reports that Hizbullah had built up a new bunker system nearby UNIFIL positions. Graziano said that UNIFIL - made up of over 13,000 soldiers - conducts over 400 patrols daily and mans close to 200 observation posts throughout the area of operations which is 1,100 square kilometers from the Litani River in the north to the Blue Line border in the south.
Sure, the Ayatoll Bros. were in here putting in sewers and basements for future housing, but no bunkers, no sir, not a one.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Taliban failed to mount their long-threatened spring offensive in Afghanistan, and indications are the guerrillas may have trouble recruiting fighters after the harvest, a NATO commander said. 
(SomaliNet) The dead bodies of the two Kenyan soldiers who had recently been abducted from the Kenya-Somalia border were found in the Somalias Dhuhul Dhurwa border village on Thursday, local official says. 
An on-the-run British terrorism suspect, linked to one of the London 2005 suicide bombers, was named on Thursday after a court lifted an order that banned revealing his identity. 
Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban supremo Mulla Mohammad Omar are not in southwestern Pakistan, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yusuf told top US diplomat Richard Boucher on Thursday.
Militants loyal to anti-Uzbek commander Mullah Nazir have warned Wazir elders against sheltering Uzbeks in South Waziristan. A tribal jirga of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes will meet today (Friday) in Wana to discuss the issue. The Taliban are angry at the presence of Uzbeks being hosted by some elders and they demand action against such people, a tribal elder told Daily Times after attending a jirga in Wana, regional headquarters of South Waziristan, on Thursday. 
US President George W. Bush's alliance with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf came under fire Thursday at a hearing in the House of Representatives on human rights as a Republican lawmaker said: "The United States should not be supporting a military dictatorship" in the South Asian country. 
BAGHDAD - The US military said on Thursday that Iraqi security forces have arrested 13 policemen over the bombing of a Shia shrine in the town of Samarra, which Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki blamed on guards at the site. Immediately following the attack, Brigadier General Duraid Ali Ahmed Mohammad Azzawi, deputy commander for the National Police in Samarra, arrested the emergency service unit commander and 12 policemen responsible for security at the time of the attack, the military said in a statement.
A senior Hamas official in Syria said Thursday there would be no change in Gaza's status and no Islamic rule declared in the territory after a near takeover of the seaside strip by the militant group. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, also ruled out Hamas separating Gaza from the West Bank. He said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' decision to fire his Hamas prime minister would complicate matters and that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would likely continue on the job.
The head of the Arab league on Thursday warned of a "disastrous outcome" if the bloody infighting between Hamas and Fatah continues, and urged an immediate cease-fire. 
Deposed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said early Friday that Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision to fire him and his government over Gaza violence was "hasty." Haniyeh told a late night Gaza news conference that Abbas and his advisers did not consider "the consequences (of the decision) and its effects on the situation on the ground."
As the assassins attempt to reduce Lebanon's majority by killing off members of the anti-Syrian coalition, the Lebanese government must prevent any new bloodshed by immediately replacing the slain politicians.
During the live coverage of Walid Eido's assassination, Nabih Berri's news channel anchors forgot to mute their microphones as they proceeded to laugh at the murder of Eido, and imply there was more coming. NBN's technical director forgot to kill the anchorwoman's microphone, allowing viewers to hear her say "it took them long enough", in reference to Eido's murder. In between rounds of laughing and gloating with her colleagues, they speculated that March 14 minister Ahmad Fatafat could be next, and tried to determine how many more March 14 members need to die to get rid of the parliament's majority.
